The B Rapide I am working on has not run since at least 1966 and probably much earlier. I am pretty sure it has the original tank and UFM. I have had the tank sitting on the UFM, but had never tried to fit the front mounting bolts. Yesterday I tried to assemble the tank to the front mounts with the FT80's and could not get both bolts in. This is almost always not an easy thing to do anyway, from my past experience with a C Rapide, but this was just about impossible. Since the UFM is bare right now I put some rods in the front and rear engine mounts , the sidecar holes, and through the tank mounts. as the picture below shows, the hole for the tank mount is quite misaligned. Looking at the ends of the bosses for this, (not shown here)it is apparent that the right hole is not centered in the boss, but is forward of center. Further more, the entire front of the head lug casting/forging is rotated clockwise relative to the cylinder head mounting holes. It is hard to see, but the steering stops are not in the same position side to side, and there is less steering travel on the left than the right. The off center tank mount through hole on the right side does attempt to correct the casting/forging misalignment, but does not go far enough, so their respective misalignment's are not equal. (I hope that makes sense). No wonder I am having trouble. There is no problem with the alignment front to back on the UFM, and all the critical holes are perpendicular to the UFM and parallel to each other, and I see no crash damage. So the questions I have are:
Are there other B's out there with this problem? This is an early 1948 UFM and I can't imagine it is a one off thing. (Head lug is one of the ones with square bottom edge and rib, for those familiar with the three types of them I know about.)
Other than re-machining the tank mounts, has anyone had to make or modify FT 80's with enlarged or slotted hole so the bolts can go in at all without stressing the tank flanges. I see this as my only good option unless someone has dealt with this before in a better way.
Ron
Are there other B's out there with this problem? This is an early 1948 UFM and I can't imagine it is a one off thing. (Head lug is one of the ones with square bottom edge and rib, for those familiar with the three types of them I know about.)
Other than re-machining the tank mounts, has anyone had to make or modify FT 80's with enlarged or slotted hole so the bolts can go in at all without stressing the tank flanges. I see this as my only good option unless someone has dealt with this before in a better way.
Ron